Research IT Board

Funding for research IT

The Research IT Board meets six times a year (or twice a term) and considers requests for new research IT projects and, if approved, the consequent funding requests for these research IT projects. Funding comes from the IT Capital fund. All research IT projects need to be requested/sponsored by either a section of UAS, GLAM or IT Services.

The full project cycle shows how these stages fit into the overall life cycle of an IT project. Research IT Board approval is required for Gate 0, Gate 1 and Gate 2. The Board has the authority to approve funding requests of £150k or less, and refer to IT Committee (ITC) funding requests over £150k.

The Research IT Board has been given a defined envelope from the IT Capital Plan for research IT projects on a three-year rolling basis. This is subject to annual review by ITC in the light of actual delivery and changing demands.

This needs to be submitted to the Secretary by the deadline for papers of the relevant meeting together with the project brief or project initiation document and completed funding approval sheet. Please note both these documents should first be considered by PSG.

Each project request and funding request will be assessed against the following criteria:

alignment with research IT priorities, the research commitments in the University’s Strategic Plan, the research objective in the IT Capital Plan, together with the strategic aims in the Digital Strategy

size/nature of the user community is such that IT Capital Investment is justified – the IT Capital fund should be used to invest in projects that serve the University as a whole, one or more divisions, a cross-division community or a strategic community, eg the high performance computing user community

clear evidence of the degree of user support for/interest in the system

clearly defined aims and justification for resources (justification for resources is only required for funding requests)

achievability, given complexity, timelines and resources

risks to the University if a project is not undertaken

statement re sustainability beyond the life of the project – where appropriate clear reference to relevant IT service with evidence of sustainability for the establishment of a new service, or replacement/enhancement of an existing service

The outcome of both project requests and funding requests will be reported by the Secretary to the project manager/sponsor and, IT Services Portfolio Management Office. In addition, the Project Finance Team, and the Secretary of ITC will be informed of the outcome of each funding request.

Project request outcomes are either:

approved

deferred for comments to be addressed– some minor issues need to be addressed, but the request does not need to be resubmitted. Approval is achieved by Chair’s action or reconsideration by the Board

rejected –the Board has reservations about some aspects of the project but overall agrees that the work described needs to be done. The proposal is returned to the project requestor for further work, and must be resubmitted to the Board or the request has not been approved and cannot be resubmitted.

Funding request decisions are limited to:

approved – where the funding requested is £150k or less and the project may be set up on Oracle Financials

deferred for comments to be addressed – some minor issues need to be addressed, but the request does not need to be resubmitted. Approval is achieved either by Chair’s action or reconsideration by the Board

rejected – the Board has reservations about some aspect of the project but overall agrees that the work described needs to be done. The proposal is returned to the project manager for further work, and must be resubmitted to IT Services Senior Management Team and the Board or the request has not been approved and cannot be resubmitted.

referred to ITC for approval – the Board agrees that the project should go ahead but the funding requested exceeds £150k